Chapter 1 Contacting the Wanderers

A few days ago, the guards Han Xiao sent out contacted a wanderer settlement dozens of miles away, stating the purpose of the shelter and inviting the wanderers to live or work there.

With food and smiles paving the way, some wanderers whose lives weren't going so well agreed to move.

From afar, the hundreds of wanderers saw the dozens of meters high city wall under construction, with the words "Black Phantom Third Shelter" written in red paint, and they all felt incredulous.

"Didn't they say they only settled in the Gray Iron Ruins a few days ago? This doesn't look like the beginning of construction..." A middle-aged man asked hesitantly, voicing everyone's doubts.

Originally, they thought the shelter was just starting out, and the conditions would be very difficult. In the wanderers' imagination, the style should be even worse than their ramshackle houses in their settlement. They were mentally prepared to suffer, but reality gave them a big surprise.

"They wouldn't have spent all their time building the wall, would they?" Someone wondered doubtfully.

Following the road into the shelter, this doubt immediately vanished. The wanderers were like bumpkins in the big city, overwhelmed by the sights.

Looking at the towering city walls, the orderly buildings, and the paved roads, everyone couldn't believe this was the progress of less than ten days of construction.

It took them several days to build a broken wooden house!

The guards led the dizzy wanderers to their residences, which were not tents or wooden houses, but brand new bunkers, with many rooms inside, and water and electricity supply. The kitchen had ingredients, so they could cook their own meals.

The great surprise was like a charging bull, hitting everyone's heart hard.

What kind of shelter is this? They should rename it to a resort!

...

"Your Excellency, we brought back 427 wanderers. There are fifteen settlements dozens of miles away, with a total population of about 3,500. Other teams are negotiating. Currently, about 300 people have explicitly refused us, and others have not yet expressed their views," Liu Chao immediately sought out Han Xiao to report the situation.

Only four hundred people, that's a bit few.

The purpose of the shelter is to protect humanity, and accepting wanderers is the biggest goal. If the city is built but no one lives there, it will become a joke.

The Goust Wasteland has few wanderers. The wanderers further away may not be willing to migrate long distances. If he wants people to come and live here, Han Xiao feels he needs Bennett's macro-control, which is to transfer refugees from other areas who are willing to settle in the shelter in batches. However, this should be a method after the plan matures, and now it is still in the initial construction stage.

Waving his hand to dismiss Liu Chao, Han Xiao walked back to the workshop, pondering the situation. His [Third Shelter] main quest had a requirement of reaching a population of 40,000 (excluding players), which was one of the most rewarding requirements and had significant benefits for improving the overall quest evaluation.

Walking down the street, seeing the lively scene of player activity, Han Xiao knew that to achieve the "player main city" plan, there must be NPC residents, preferably important figures settling in, as these were all quest resources that would attract players to gather.

Coincidentally, residents were also a requirement of the shelter, which was interlinked with his plan.

"This is a long-term job," Han Xiao thought.

Occasionally, players would come up to chat, wanting to buy equipment. Han Xiao was happy to do so, disposing of some useless equipment and earning a new sum of money.

...

Back in the workshop, the refining machine was still working. Han Xiao was in good shape. He didn't want to waste his good condition, so he took out the parts and began to manufacture a composite magnetic chain splitting blade, aiming for purple equipment quality. This time, it was easier than ever before.

This time, he felt like he had it!

The noise of the refining machine echoed in the workshop, but Han Xiao was not disturbed by external objects, immersing himself in the manufacturing. When the refining machine stopped, he also completed the work.

[You have created a Composite Magnetic Chain Splitting Blade (Purple)]

[Job advancement requirement: Complete five pieces of purple equipment with an energy level of 60 or higher, progress 1/5]

Breathing out, Han Xiao felt much more relaxed.

Everything is hard at the beginning. This thing is like forgiveness - once you have the first time, there will be a second and third time, and sooner or later you will become proficient.

"I should be able to complete the job advancement this month," Han Xiao secretly estimated.

Without looking at the panel, Han Xiao also knew the attributes of the purple equipment by heart. Starting from the blue equipment, the equipment gap brought by quality gradually increased. The basic attributes of purple equipment were 20% to 30% higher than those of blue equipment! The damage of the purple magnetic chain splitting blade was a notch higher than that of the blue equipment. The higher the quality, the greater the attribute gap.

Replacing the blue equipment on his body with the purple equipment, Han Xiao then went to check the refining machine's work results.

Two tons of crystal ore had turned into a small pile of pure, flawless, light blue diamond-shaped crystals, each about half a palm size, able to be held in one hand. The ore was filled with ice cracks and misty patterns, while the purified crystals were clear and transparent. Light passed through the crystals without obstruction, producing refraction inside, and the light emitted, as if a miniature sun was suspended inside the crystal.

[Primary Energy Crystal: Contains attribute-less pure energy, can be converted and extracted]

Energy crystals are most commonly used in magical civilizations and crystal civilizations, and some organisms feed on energy blocks.

Han Xiao nodded secretly. As for the use of energy crystals in his hands, apart from storing energy, he hadn't thought of other uses for the time being. Specialization has its own focus. Magical civilizations have more ways to use energy crystals.

"I'll store them first. There are Shadow Eater Viper eggs in the warehouse, which can be tried to cultivate. Artificially feeding them waste should add another channel to obtain energy blocks," Han Xiao thought. Cultivating beast eggs required specialized talent, and Yi Ye Qing was just right for the job.

...

Late at night, the sky was full of stars.

Star Dragon Border.

The rotor blades stirred up a strong wind, and a dark, heavy helicopter slowly landed, the weeds being blown to and fro, shaking non-stop.

Several serious Star Dragon special forces soldiers escorted a person off the plane. This person wore metal goggles, a straitjacket, and had a thin figure. Her long, brown hair was dry and messy, having not been taken care of for a long time. Her lips were pale and chapped, and the lower half of her face, which was exposed, had a soft outline. She was a woman.

"Officer, the person has been brought," the special forces soldier saluted the officer waiting on the side.

"Confirm her physical characteristics. Don't let her wake up," Feng Jun said. He was the person in charge of this handover. This woman in the straitjacket was Yi Ye Qing, a major prisoner who had been extracted from Doom Island overnight.

The accompanying doctor said, "Don't worry, I gave her a large dose of sedative and sleeping pills. She's sleeping soundly now."

"Check again."

Feng Jun looked down at his watch. The handover time was almost up. He was a little nervous. The task he was shouldering this time also included inquiring about Han Xiao's current news.

He didn't know who was coming to take over, and whether they would give him face. Although Feng Jun knew Han Xiao, he was very unsure because of the Great Technician Han's personality.

Time passed minute by minute. Everyone waited quietly. The night wind blew gently, brushing over the grass on the ground, making a rustling sound. Occasionally, insects made a buzzing sound as they flapped their wings. Apart from that, there was no other sound, and the atmosphere became very tense with everyone's mood.

Whoosh--

The sound of rotor blades cutting through the air rang from the sky. Feng Jun's spirits lifted, and he looked up.

In the night sky, a helicopter drove over, turned on its indicator lights, and flashed a secret signal. Feng Jun quickly asked people to respond. After matching the light signals, the helicopter landed. Feng Jun quickly observed it and found that the helicopter had no markings. He didn't know what force it belonged to.

But even if he didn't know the other party's background, Feng Jun could see that Han Xiao had indeed joined other forces, and his heart was a little heavy.

"Where's the person?" A masked man walked off the plane.

Feng Jun waved his hand, and the troops behind him handed over Yi Ye Qing. The masked man opened a computer and compared it. After confirming that the identity was correct, he moved Yi Ye Qing onto the plane. The helicopter immediately took off, only stopping for more than a minute throughout the whole process, without any sloppiness. Feng Jun had no chance to communicate and could only helplessly watch the helicopter leave.

Taking out his phone, Feng Jun called Gu Hui and reported it again.

"He really joined another force. If we can't find him, it should be this force that's hiding him," Gu Hui pondered.

What kind of organization is it?

...

On the helicopter, the masked man untied Yi Ye Qing's metal goggles and straitjacket.

Suddenly, Yi Ye Qing, who should have been asleep, opened her eyes and stared at the masked man. Neither of them spoke, and they just looked at each other for half a minute. Yi Ye Qing lowered her head, scratched open the flesh of her forearm with her fingernails, picked out a bloody chip eavesdropper, and crushed it into pieces.

She was not actually asleep. She had been faking it all along. As a pharmacist, how could she not have trained her drug resistance? Sleeping pills had no effect on her. Being imprisoned on Doom Island for several years had all been a pretense.

"What did they exchange me for?" Yi Ye Qing asked calmly, without any sense of danger, as if she was chatting with an old friend. However, she and the masked man were complete strangers.

"Some intelligence," the masked man said, looking at Yi Ye Qing with interest.

"Cheap," Yi Ye Qing frowned, her face dissatisfied, and said, "You're interested in my ability to make potions, aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?" The masked man asked playfully.

"Apart from this, you probably don't care about my other abilities," Yi Ye Qing said lightly. "After all, you're too strong."

When the Doom Island guards injected her with sleeping pills a few days ago and took her on the plane, Yi Ye Qing knew that she had become a bargaining chip and finally saw the light of escape.

While maintaining the pretense of being asleep, she listened to the conversation of the escort team and learned that there would be a handover. Yi Ye Qing then prepared to use her own abilities to escape after the handover, so as to regain her freedom and no longer be manipulated.

Yi Ye Qing's ability was to control plants within a certain range, so her perception was very keen. The masked man gave her the feeling of a beast hidden under human skin, as if he would pounce and hunt at any time. He was even more dangerous than when the Star Dragon special forces pointed a gun at her head at all times during the escort. Yi Ye Qing immediately knew that escape was hopeless, so she gave up the idea of resisting.

"I wanted to run away, but it looks like I'm courting death," Yi Ye Qing said honestly.

Han Xiao took off his mask and smiled slightly. "You're very rational."

For this handover, Han Xiao made a special disguise and came in person by plane. He knew that Yi Ye Qing was not simple, and sending other people might cause trouble. He felt most at ease coming in person.

Sure enough, Yi Ye Qing had a backup plan. If he hadn't come in person, she might have run away. Yi Ye Qing had a very calm temperament. She was not surprised by unexpected events at all. She had a calm demeanor as if Mount Tai was collapsing in front of her without changing her expression. She looked like someone who was engaged in scientific research, who was never afraid of accidents in experiments.

"What do you need me to do?" Yi Ye Qing asked.

"I'll tell you when we get there." Han Xiao casually took out an instrument to scan Yi Ye Qing's body for other eavesdropping devices, while at the same time, he was thinking about how to make Yi Ye Qing willingly stay in the shelter to work. Although he had temporarily deterred Yi Ye Qing, if there was a chance in the future, he felt that Yi Ye Qing would not give up escaping. He didn't have time to keep an eye on her all the time.

The helicopter flew away in the night sky.